


if this feeling flows both ways

by andfinallywearehome



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, girl meets world of terror 3, gmwot3!rilaya, i still love this episode so much, oh look its more gmwot3 fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 04:25:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13942566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andfinallywearehome/pseuds/andfinallywearehome
Summary: Riley Matthews is a symphony. She’s an entire album, a musical epic, a masterpiece that Maya has worked on since they were seven years old, from the first day of kindergarten.[or: the one where w-o-t-3!maya hart falls in love with her strange duck]





	if this feeling flows both ways

**Author's Note:**

> yeah, i don't know what this is, lmao. i just love gmwot3!rilaya a lot.
> 
>  
> 
> title comes from the song 'Do I Wanna Know' by arctic monkeys and i own nothing recognisable.

Riley Matthews is a symphony. She’s an entire album, a musical epic, a masterpiece that Maya has worked on since they were seven years old, from the first day of kindergarten. That’s the day Riley Matthews appears in her life for the first time, a ball of energy and sunshine. If she’s music at seven years old, she’s pop - upbeat, bubblegum, _happy_.

  
No one can be that happy, Maya thinks. It’s not possible. Her mom and dad are proof of that.

 -- x --

  
The first time she insults Riley, calls her a name, is when they’re nine.

  
It’s nothing serious, some stupid childish name, and it gets a laugh out of one of the other kids, but Riley’s face, for a single moment, drops, her expression falling, and Maya can’t decide whether or not to be guilty or not. All she can think of is that sad song she heard on the radio on the way to school, and the way the melody had made her heart ache for a father that is no longer in her life, but the moment is over before Maya can choose to do something, maybe even apologise, and the infuriatingly sunny expression is back, and that sad song that had reached out to her is the furthest thing from her mind.

  
\-- x --

  
“Why do you pick on me?” Matthews demands when they are fifteen, folding her arms across the front of her dress to try and look formidable.

  
“Because how could I not?” Maya says in response, and really, it’s as simple as that because it’s true. Riley is dorky, and irritating, but part of that is what makes her so appealing. She’s still that pop song that she had been at seven, but there’s something nostalgic about it now. It’s like hearing an old song on the radio when you don’t expect to; it’s almost _comforting_.

  
“You’re a strange duck, Matthews,” is all she says aloud.

  
\-- x --

  
There’s something about Riley Matthews.

  
Maya’s always known this -- Matthews is her strange duck, she’s said this to her -- but this time it’s different. She’s... _noticing_ things, things about Riley that she’s never really looked at before: the waves in her long hair, the inquisitive tilt of her head, the curve of her neck down to her shoulders that she gets a front row seat to from her desk. It’s all rather disconcerting; how is she supposed to get Matthews to do her homework for her if she keeps getting distracted by all these unwelcome observations?

  
_Perhaps_ , a small part of her thinks, she should try saying something to someone about this. Heck, even confronting Matthews about what on earth she’s done to put such thoughts in her head would be a start.

  
“Hey, Friar,” she says instead, in response to some remark from the corner where Lucas Friar sits. “You as tough as everyone thinks you are?”

  
“Hey, Hart,” he returns across the room, and for a moment, Maya could swear that he _knows_ , that he can read the thoughts that are swirling inside her head. “Are you?”

  
She’s not going to give him the satisfaction of an answer.

  
\-- x --

  
“How in the world could you look at someone like _me_ and see a B-?”

  
They’re in the hallway after school, no one else but them, and although Maya initially had plans to confront Matthews about what she’s doing, all the angry words die in her throat as soon as she sees the brunette that’s been haunting her thoughts for the past few weeks.

  
“I see better than that --”

  
“But, _why_?” Maya insists, because no one has ever used the words _B-_ and _Maya Hart_ in the same sentence, and Matthews doesn’t say anything, not even to give another speech about how great Maya could be if she only applied herself. Her gaze falls to the floor, and she scuffs her shoes, and if Maya’s not mistaken there’s a dusting of red covering her cheeks, and --

  
Oh.

  
“You like me.”

  
Riley looks up in what can only be described as alarm. “No, I don’t --!”

  
Maya rolls her eyes; she’s not backing down with this one, because suddenly a whole lot of things make more sense now. “Yes, you _do_.”

  
“You’re being ridiculous, Maya.”

  
“Go on, then, Matthews. Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t feel anything for me.”

  
Matthews looks almost petrified, and Maya has a rare moment of self doubt, that maybe she's got the wrong end of the stick after all and Matthews really is just a saint --

And then Riley grabs her by the front of the shirt, like Maya has done many times, and kisses her so hard that Maya herself nearly topples backwards.

  
“Like that?” She asks when she pulls away, and she’s almost breathless. Maya wonders, for a moment, why she hasn’t shoved her away, why she’s still allowing Riley to keep her grip on her shirt like this, and then decides that she doesn’t need to question it. Actually, she doesn’t _want_ to.

  
“Oh --” She’s grinning now, a genuine grin, the first in a while “-- it’s _on_ , Matthews.”

  
\-- x --

  
Riley Matthews is a symphony.

  
She’s an entire album, a musical epic, a masterpiece.

  
And Maya can finally sing along.


End file.
